Putin critic gunned down at Moscow home

By Nick Paton Walsh in MoscowApril 19 2003

A leading Russian MP and critic of the Kremlin has been shot dead in the entrance to his home in central Moscow.

Sergei Yushenkov, one of the leaders of the Liberal Russia party, was shot several times in the chest on Thursday. He was the third prominent politician to be gunned down in Moscow in seven months, a chain of events that will embarrass a Kremlin keen to convince the West that the banditry of the lawless 1990s has been vanquished.

Leading politicians said the murder was politically motivated. Earlier in the day Mr Yushenkov helped his party to complete its registration for parliamentary elections in December.

Mr Yushenkov, an outspoken advocate of human rights, was a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin's rule and of the administration's handling of the war-torn republic of Chechnya. He was also fiercely critical of the security service, the FSB.

Last August Vladimir Golovlyov, another member of Liberal Russia, was shot dead as he walked his dog in a Moscow suburb. He was under investigation for corruption at the time. On Thursday night officials said the two murders could be connected, but declined to give details.

The murder of prominent politicians is chillingly common in Russia. In November the governor of the far-eastern region of Magadan was assassinated in front of his wife in a central Moscow street.

Yuli Nesyevich, executive secretary of Liberal Russia, said he had spoken to Mr Yushenkov on his mobile phone five minutes before his death. "He was driving home after a long day at the Duma, [the Russian parliament]."

His chauffeur said Mr Yushenkov left the car and let the apartment block's front door close behind him. The driver then heard several shots.

Mr Yushenkov had been an MP for 14 years. The Speaker of the parliament, Gennady Selezhnyov, expressed outrage at such a "challenge to society". He said: "I have no doubts that this was politically motivated."

A leading opposition MP, Boris Nemtsov, added: "He was a person with a spotless reputation and even his political enemies recognised that."

The murder ignited a debate across the media about whether Russia, where such killings are now commonplace, was practising genuine democracy.

Liberal Russia was founded last year in part with funds from the London-based tycoon and former Kremlin kingmaker Boris Berezovsky, who is fighting an extradition warrant on Russian fraud charges. Berezovsky used his media empire to win the presidency for Mr Putin three years ago, but then fell out with him.

Liberal Russia recently severed ties with Berezovsky because of his support for the Communist Party. Mr Yushenkov last year helped to publicise a film financed by the tycoon which alleged that the FSB was behind apartment bombings in 1999 blamed on Chechen rebels. The bombings killed about 300 and provoked the second Chechen war, the tough stance on which secured Mr Putin his election victory.